(): song, (bound form) to sing

() is a Chinese character meaning “song.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #1039 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, breath. Its radical form (yawn) appears in many related characters such as (, next in sequence), (huān, hubbub), (qiàn, to owe).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. song
  2. (bound form) to sing

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticbreath

Decomposition: ⿰哥欠 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
noungē qǔsong5
noungē shǒusinger4
noungē císong lyric5
verbgē chàngto sing6
noungē shēngsinging voice4
nounshī gēpoem6
nounmín gēfolk song6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
chàng gēto sing a song
gē jùWestern opera
gē mífan of a singer
gē xīngsinging star
gē wǔsinging and dancing
qíng gēlove song
guó gēnational anthem
gē jù yuànopera house
sòng gēcarol
gē hóusinging voice
gē sòngto sing the praises of
kǎi gētriumphal hymn
ér gēnursery rhyme
gē lì yàGoliath
duì gēanswering phrase of duet
100
Total compounds
38
As first character
47
As last character
15
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 38 as the first character, 47 as the last, and 15 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.7431,282,922 co-occurrences
shǒu
0.652723,234 co-occurrences
chàng
0.594305,220 co-occurrences
shī
0.50452,350 co-occurrences
shǒu
0.498263,636 co-occurrences
sòng
0.48910,434 co-occurrences
0.47677,220 co-occurrences
0.46852,272 co-occurrences
yáo
0.4536,720 co-occurrences
shé
0.42811,388 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (12)

duì jiǔ dāng gēHSK 3+

lit. sing to accompany wine (idiom); fig. life is short, make merry while you can

phrase
gāogēměngjìnHSK 7+

to advance triumphantly

phrase
gēgōngsòngdéHSK 7+

to sing somebody's praises; to heap praises and eulogies

phrase
西GēluóxīshūHSK 7+

Book of Colossians

gēwǔshēngpíngHSK 5+

prosperous and peaceful

phrase
kěgēkěqìHSK 7+

epic; moving

phrase
nénggēshànwǔHSK 5+

to be good at singing and dancing; to have many talents

phrase
sìmiànchǔgēHSK 3+

facing hostility, difficulty, or frustration on all sides

phrase
yǐn háng gāo gēHSK 7+

to sing at the top of one's voice (idiom)

phrase
zài gē qiě wǔHSK 5+

singing and dancing (idiom); festive celebrations

phrase
zàigēzàiwǔHSK 5+

singing and dancing; festive celebrations

phrase
yīnggēyànwǔHSK 7+

lively scenery of spring; scene of prosperity

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。

gē zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .

The character "歌" has different usages in different contexts.

News For ChineseFeb 2026

“民50”唱进湾区,共赴岁月的约定

mín gē 5 0 chàng jìn wān qū , gòng fù suì yuè de yuē dìng

"Folk Song 50" sung into the Bay Area and went to the agreement of the years

東方日報Feb 2026

江若琳支持老公追梦 相隔20年再出

jiāng ruò 琳 zhī chí lǎo gōng zhuī mèng xiāng gé 2 0 nián zài chū gē

Jiang Ruolin supports her husband to pursue her dreams and sing again after 20 years

The Portugal NewsFeb 2026

U2 发布批评美国的新

U 2 fā bù pī píng měi guó de xīn gē

U2 releases new songs critical of the United States

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...泳性感镜头疑遭刻意删减 公开绝密福利照凭寄意回应

. . . yǒng xìng gǎn jìng tóu yí zāo kè yì shān jiǎn gōng kāi jué mì fú lì zhào píng gē jì yì huí yīng

... Yong's sexy footage is suspected of being deliberately deleted, and the release of top-secret welfare photos responds with songs

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

2026“欢乐春节·新春音乐会”在悉尼剧院举行

2 0 2 6 huān lè chūn jié xīn chūn yīn lè huì zài xī ní gē jù yuàn jǔ háng

The 2026 "Happy Spring Festival and New Year Concert" will be held at the Sydney Opera House

Tatoeba

你有听过那首的法文版本吗?

Nǐ yǒu tīng guo nà shǒu gē de Fǎwén bǎnběn ma?

Have you ever heard that song sung in French?

Tatoeba

约翰在台上唱了什么

Yuēhàn zài táishàng chàng le shénme gē?

What did John sing on the stage?

Tatoeba

我这个唱得好不好?

Wǒ zhège gēchàng de hǎobuhǎo?

Am I singing that song well?

Tatoeba

哪首是你最喜欢的

Nǎ shǒu shì nǐ zuì xǐhuan de gē?

Which is your favorite song?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 歌 (gē) mean in Chinese?
歌 (gē) primarily means "song." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1039 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 歌 have?
歌 is written with 14 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 歌?
The radical associated with 歌 is 欠 (yawn). This radical appears in many characters related to yawn.
What are the components of 歌?
歌 is composed of: 哥 (phonetic), 欠 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰哥欠 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 歌?
Common words with 歌 include: 唱歌 (chàng gē, "to sing a song"); 歌曲 (gē qǔ, "song"); 歌手 (gē shǒu, "singer"); 歌词 (gē cí, "song lyric"); 歌唱 (gē chàng, "to sing"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 歌 (gē)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gē: 戈 (dagger-axe), 哥 (elder brother), 胳 (armpit), 革 (animal hide), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 歌 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 歌 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.